Editor:
As the August 12 referendum on the Town of Banff’s pedestrian zone rapidly approaches, I ask eligible local residents to consider a few important questions before deciding how to vote.
Since incorporating in 1990, has the Town of Banff improved your quality of life?
Utilize these results in your calculations: a roughly zero per cent residential vacancy rate that has persisted for many years; a massive disconnect between real wages and the cost of living that has widened into an impassable canyon; and, unmanageable traffic flows that, if Rocky Mountain Outlook contributors are to be believed, has severely affected local quality of life.
Has the Town of Banff provided optional pedestrian zone plans that do not include extensions of Banff’s strictly regulated commercial square footage via restaurant and pub patios?
Why not?
What businesses in Banff directly benefit from this plan? Are there businesses that will be negatively impacted by traffic flow diversions?
Tourism has always been the foundation of Banff’s economy and local residents have generally understood this fact.
Banffites have constantly made sacrifices to keep the tourism dollars flowing such as driving to Calgary to buy diapers, dog food and children’s clothing to avoid Banff’s notorious tourist pricing on everyday goods and services.
Just once, in my now diminishing years available, it would be refreshing to witness Banff’s business community acquiesce to the needs of local residents.
As I no longer live in Banff, I won’t tell you how to vote but I will leave you with this comment recently shared with me as I engaged a young family, visiting western Canada from India, in conversation aboard a BC Ferries vessel. When they learned that I was originally from Banff, a frown came over their faces and the young woman said: “I hope you won’t take offence sir, but Banff was the worst part of our trip.”
Max Wilkie,
North Vancouver
